President Donald J. Trump also announced Saturday that he will place major sanctions on the Middle Eastern nation. He appears to be exploring options to subdue Iran that do not include a full-blown military intervention.

“Iran cannot have Nuclear Weapons! Under the terrible Obama plan, they would have been on their way to Nuclear in a short number of years, and existing verification is not acceptable,” he said on Twitter. “We are putting major additional Sanctions on Iran on Monday. I look forward to the day that Sanctions [sic] come off Iran, and they become a productive and prosperous nation again – The sooner the better!”

….Sanctions come off Iran, and they become a productive and prosperous nation again – The sooner the better!

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President Donald Trump appears to have personally scratched a plan to strike Iran on Thursday night, in response to the nation’s destruction of an American drone aircraft. The President had ordered the operation earlier in the day.

The development comes as tensions approach all-time highs between the United States and the Shia Islamist Republic. Leading hawks within the White House such as National Security Advisor John Bolton were said to have sought a forceful response in reaction to the earlier incident, which saw a U.S Navy drone shot down over the Persian Gulf. It’s unclear if the drone was in international waters.

A cancellation of a potentially provocative and complicated operation signals a victory for the restrained foreign policy the President became known for championing as a candidate. Earlier Thursday the President expressed his opinion that Iran “made a mistake” by destroying the unmanned aircraft in a White House briefing.

If his instincts prove correct, a retaliatory attack on Iran would have been significantly out of proportion to Iran’s actions. Few Americans or national security experts are exactly pining to see the United States execute a full-fledged and dangerous attack on Iranian assets in response to the destruction of a robot.